It's all tweet and sour for embarrassed Hamilton after Button eclipse

Lewis Hamilton was forced into an embarrassing climb-down after taking to Twitter to vent his displeasure at being eclipsed by his team-mate Jenson Button, who produced a stunning qualifying display here to register his first pole for McLaren.

Hamilton, by contrast, had to be content with eighth, although he was promoted to seventh thanks to a five-place grid penalty for Mark Webber, after Red Bull were forced to replace his gearbox.

Climbdown: Lewis Hamilton made a bit of a twit of himself

Blaming the decision to run an old spec rear wing for his lack of pace, Hamilton tweeted: 'Damn, WT F!! Jenson has the new rear wing on, I have the old. We voted to change, didn't work out. I lose 0.4 tenths just on the straight.'

Seconds later he added: 'Nothing I could do. Now it's about picking up every point I can from there. Jenson should win easy with that speed.'

Tweet surrender: Hamilton's tweets

Hamilton then tweeted that his use of the acronym 'WT F' had been a joke, claiming it was another example of Ali G style humour.

Given that the last time he tried a similar gag was his infamous, 'Maybe it is because I am black' gaff at the Monaco Grand Prix last year, Hamilton should have known better.

The fact his tweets were swiftly deleted suggested that someone at McLaren did not find the matter amusing, while they bore little resemblance to the team press release, in which Hamilton claimed the decision to run the old wing had been 'a collective choice'.

Pole star: Jenson Button

Speaking later alongside Button and McLaren team principal Martin Whitmarsh, Hamilton claimed the disappearance of the tweets had been prompted by his desire to 'rephrase some things I said'.

Hamilton then professed his desire to do everything he can in today's Belgian Grand Prix to help his team-mate to victory.

The irony is that all the pre-race talk had been about Button becoming a support act to Hamilton, who he trails by 41 points.

While Hamilton was busy with Twitter, Button was sat in the top three press conference expressing his delight at finally hooking things up on a Saturday qualifying. 'This is close to winning a grand prix for me, it has been so long,' said Button who is competing in his 50th race for McLaren and whose last pole came in 2009 at the Monaco Grand Prix.

'Sundays have been good over the last few years, but Saturdays have not gone perfectly. I have a style which makes it difficult to make the car work in qualifying but, when it does, I get pole.'

Kamui Kobayashi of Sauber was second, but Pastor Maldonado of Williams was demoted from third to sixth for blocking Force India's Nico Hulkenberg.

Reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel will start 11th, while Michael Schumacher was 13th in his 300th grand prix.